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Thursday, June 22, 2017

#673 - Buck Martinez

What a card: Buck Martinez appeared in 102 games for the Blue Jays in 1984, the first time in 15 seasons in the majors that he had appeared in 100 games in a season.

My observation on the front: An interesting choice of a photo, showing Martinez leading off. He stole five bases in 1,049 career games.

More opinion from me: Martinez played a long time, I have lots of cards of him, yet I associated him more with being a broadcaster than a player.

Something you might know: Martinez made one very memorable play at the plate in 1985. He was bowled over by the Mariners' Phil Bradley while making the tag out at the plate. He suffered a broken leg on the play, yet tried to throw out Gorman Thomas advancing on the bases. The throw went into left field and Thomas tried to go home, only to be tagged out by Martinez, who had received the throw from George Bell, despite the broken leg, for the double play.

Something you might not know: Martinez posted a lifetime .225 batting average. He said in a 1983 article that a hunting accident contributed to his inability to hit consistently. During the 1976 offseason, Martinez and Royals teammate and pitcher Doug Bird went hunting. Bird took a shot while he was behind Martinez and a pellet struck Martinez in the eye. His vision in his left eye was 20/200 since.

A word about the back: Martinez met Arlene in Puerto Rico when he was playing winter ball in 1971. But the two didn't see each other again for three more years during a party in Florida in spring training. That's when they started dating.

-- The Hardball Times-- HighHeatStats.com-- Honolulu Star-Bulletin-- "If These Walls Could Talk, Los Angeles Dodgers" - Houston Mitchell--IMDb.com-- "Is This a Great Game or What?" - Tim Kurkijan-- the Ivy League